Upgrading and Repairing PCs
Upgrading & Repairing PCsis more likely to have the answers to your PC hardware questions than other books on the market. If you're in the business of assembling, upgrading or troubleshooting machines based on the IBM/Intel architecture, you must have this book near your workbench. The newest edition of this hardware classic contains information on the latest offerings from the chipmakers (including CPUs & support chipsets). Mueller also has improved his SCSI coverage by including the most complete documentation of SCSI-1, SCSI-2 & SCSI-3, as well as explanations of the pseudonyms by which those technologies go (Wide SCSI, Ultra Wide SCSI, Fast SCSI etc.)--something hard to find. He includes tables of SCSI signals for troubleshooting purposes, which is rare to find in print. As always, he earns points for his clear statements of what connects with what & how. There are tables that correlate standard processor receptacles with the chips (from Intel, AMD, Cyrix) that fit into them. There are thoro & well-annotated lists of memory addresses, beep codes & harddisk specifications. He's used clear line drawings instead of the murky photos that diminish the value of many hardware books. Furthermore, he's an excellent writing style. Mostly, you'll value Upgrading & Repairing PCsas a reference, but it also includes tutorials on certain topics, including the assembly of a custom PC.--David Wall (editing) Topics covered: New RAM technologies, new motherboard standards (including ATX), new ATA bus specifications; peripheral goodies such as SuperDisk, rewritable CD-ROM drives, DVD drives & LCD monitors; SCSI-1, SCSI-2 & SCSI-3.